The Japan Fisheries Agency began monitoring sales of sea cucumbers and abalone on 1 June, as one of the country’s new laws to prevent illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing – and rampant poaching of the two species – starts to take effect.
The law, “Act on the Optimization of Domestic Distribution of Specified Aquatic Animals and Plants,” was passed in December 2020, and the enforcement of the law begins this December. The Japan Fisheries Agency has begun accepting notifications of sales of sea cucumbers and abalones between catchers and those handling them, effectively starting an early notification period for the new law.
The is intended to prevent the distribution of illegally caught aquatic animals and plants. It categorizes aquatic animals and plants into Class I (domestic) and Class II (imported). These designations also cover processed products made from the items.
Class I aquatic animals and plants are recognized to be at significant risk of illegal and excessive catching or gathering in Japan. A person or organization that sells, exports, processes, manufactures, or provides them is considered as handling them for the purposes of the law.
For sea cucumbers and abalones caught in Japan, an electronic notification of the catcher and the person or organization purchasing the item will be now required.
The two items have been heavily targeted by criminals as they are easily picked up by hand or by divers, and have high value. In 2015, authorities uncovered an illegal sea cucumber racket in Aomori Prefecture valued at an estimated JPY 190 million (USD 1.7 million, EUR 1.5 million), and in 2017, the boss of Japan’s largest yakuza criminal organization was fined JPY 100 million (USD 900,000, EUR 800,000) for illegal possession of 60 metric tons of sea cucumbers.
After the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) accepts the notification and confirms that the catcher has the authority to harvest the species, it will assign a notification number to the sale and assign it to the person submitting the notification.
When product from the original sale is divided for sale to different business customers, a lot number will be given that corresponds to the assigned sale number, and MAFF should be notified. If the items are lost or destroyed, this also has to be reported as part of the new law.
Businesses have said the reporting requirements may add a heavy administrative burden at first for local fishery cooperatives operating local markets, according to a statement by Masaharu Amano, head of Fisheries Processing Industries and Marketing Division of the Fisheries Agency told the Seafood Legacy Times. However, he also acknowledged that poaching is rampant in Japan, and that firm action is needed.
The reporting requirements will be expanded to glass eels or elvers, which are pre-juvenile Japanese eels, in the year 2025.
Class II Aquatic Animals and Plants are those imported into Japan, and those that are recognized by MAFF as subject to illegal harvest or gathered with significant IUU risk by foreign fishing vessels under foreign laws, or those subject to international conservation and management measures. Documents from the flag state of the vessel catching the species, proving that the Class II seafood was legally captured, will be required when importing and exporting the species.
Among Class II aquatic animals, the new law will at first be applied only to squid and cuttlefish, Pacific saury, mackerel, and sardines.
Photo courtesy of mnimage/Shutterstock
